I’m not crazy sock knitter. I’ve amassed a certain amount of socks over the years (and sock yarn begging to be knit up), but it’s [...]]]> This has been a very non-lacy season for me. Part of that has been due to knitting sweaters and hats, and part of that is due to knitting (gasp!) non-lace shawls.

I’m not crazy sock knitter. I’ve amassed a certain amount of socks over the years (and sock yarn begging to be knit up), but it’s not a driving passion. However, I find lace in a sock can be a great motivator, and as I’ve been intrigued by Cookie A’s Marlene for a while, I decided to make this one of my Ravelympics projects. I got them done just under the wire. Since today was bright and sunny, I finally got a half-way decent shot to share with you all.

I finished my socks.  They were so fun to knit…the pattern is part of a sock club though (Cascadia) so it isn’t available just yet.  When it does come out I recommend it though because the pattern is interesting and unique; beautiful (I think), and easy to memorize.  Runs a bit big though.  Here’s a [...]]]>

I finished my socks.  They were so fun to knit…the pattern is part of a sock club though (Cascadia) so it isn’t available just yet.  When it does come out I recommend it though because the pattern is interesting and unique; beautiful (I think), and easy to memorize.  Runs a bit big though.  Here’s a detail of the back pattern:

And the front:

To most knitters, dingle berries and vegetable matter are unknown, but to the knitter who also spins her [...]]]> This is roving (aka top or sliver).  It is a luscious form of fiber which has been carefully dyed, blended and combed.  All the gnarls are gone.  All the vegetable matter is gone… and no dingle berries…

To most knitters, dingle berries and vegetable matter are unknown, but to the knitter who also spins her own yarn, they remind me of that sheep and farmer and worm and pasture which is part of everything I knit.

Since the holiday knitting begins in September, for me, January is Selfish Knitting Month.  This January, I was very selfish indeed.  I used my own handspun merino/’silk in an almost-fingering weight yarn to knit this very special wrap.  The pattern is Estonian Garden Wrap by Evelyn Clark. (Fiber Trends).

Estonian Garden Wrap was much easier to knit than I expected and the nupps were fun.

The color reminds me of grass in late summer – brown and golden and nearly straw.

Seems I am embarking on my own Year of Lace… my queue is full of them, but I have decided to be a bit selfish.  I will work at my own speed and only work to please myself.  It takes longer that way.. but it is sweeter.

Peg

It’s about beads.  I have to choose what to do about them before I knit the next row (which row I must finish before tomorrow night, when we have Knit Night).

You see, I’ve used two different bead [...]]]> I’ve hit a decision point on Irtfa’a, and I’m dithering so much I’ve decided to ask for help.

It’s about beads.  I have to choose what to do about them before I knit the next row (which row I must finish before tomorrow night, when we have Knit Night).

You see, I’ve used two different bead sizes on this shawl.  At the very top, I’ve used 6/0 beads.

I like those, but they seemed, oh, a bit heavy handed to put throughout a whole shawl.  So…

Throughout the center section, I’ve used 8/0 beads.

Here’s that magic point where I switched bead sizes.

And now, I’m at the bottom.  I plan to use the 8/0 beads at the very bottom — in the edging. But… what about this last section before the edging.  Do I keep up with the 8/0 beads until the edging?  Or do I go for the larger beads in this “Quill and Feather” section.

Or… do I do the first repeat of the Quill & Feather in wee beads, and the second and the edging in the “larger” ones?

Alas, photography is a challenge, what with it being night time and all….So that was the best I can get for shots with the beads in situ.

These three scarves were done in an effort to make sure [...]]]> At getting pictures and posting things here that is. Here are some of my FO’s The first, the Genevieve Shaw from Heirloom Knitting, is really related to the Fall Seasons of Lace but I only managed to finish it in Late Jan.

These three scarves were done in an effort to make sure I have enough scarves to balance the shawls for an art show I will be in in April. They won’t all go in but that leaves one or two for next year?All the patterns are different (the last two only slightly) and all my design. I’m also trying to decide whether to write up the patterns for any of them or not. 

OK – I let our knitter’s talk me into doing something outrageous. We currently have 942 Evenstar knitters, and it seems some of our more – [...]]]> Susan Pandorf, designer of the Evenstar shawl that some of us are trying to work as a KAL here, has made this offer (I’m posting it from the Ravelry board).

And here’s my progress on my Nefertiti Shawl,  I’m really loving this.  It’s knit diagonally, which is interesting.  The yarn is [...]]]> I knit this beret twice, because I lost it once at the grocery store.  This is my third beret this winter, one blew off at a Mardi Gras parade and was lost in the crowds!

And here’s my progress on my Nefertiti Shawl,  I’m really loving this.  It’s knit diagonally, which is interesting.  The yarn is Lost City Denise’s Saffron Threads alpaca.  Really lovely and soft.

However, it hasn’t completely stopped me from making lace progress.

When last we say The Wings of Bambu, I was facing a bit of a problem.  You see, there was a bit of design discrepancy — partly the designer, partly me, partly a mis-communication between me and the [...]]]> Life at my house has been … well… interesting.

However, it hasn’t completely stopped me from making lace progress.

When last we say The Wings of Bambu, I was facing a bit of a problem.  You see, there was a bit of design discrepancy — partly the designer, partly me, partly a mis-communication between me and the designer when I was talking to her about what her intent was.  Since I can’t “see” things in written out lace, and have not yet tried to tackle charting something with knit 3-into-1 going on in every row), I couldn’t tell whether it was a mistake when those knit 3-into-1’s stopped lining up in the center of the previous knit 3-into-1.  So, I looked her up, and we conversed.

She assumed I was talking about one place, but I was talking about another.  This caused me to knit forward incorrectly for a bit making things match up that weren’t quite supposed to.  That discrepancy and confusion made me rip back about 10 rows.  Now, I’ve tweaked it a bit, and tried to make it do what I think she was aiming for in a slightly subtler way than I think she did.  I may, however, have just made a confusing mess.  Either way, as far as I’m concerned, I’ve recovered and gone past it.  Even if what I did to tweak it my way (and sort of do what I think she told me she was aiming for), doesn’t turn out to have been spot on…. I’m leaving it this way.  We’ll be able to see in about ten or so more rows.

Now I just need to find some time to sit and knit!

It has been finished for nearly two weeks now, in fact, but the fact that I couldn’t reach the SoL-Homepage from Austria and the lack of that sunny day to take a photo I had waited for kept me from posting the [...]]]> so here is my Echo Flowers FO called “Galil Flowers”, finally

It has been finished for nearly two weeks now, in fact, but the fact that I couldn’t reach the SoL-Homepage from Austria and the lack of that sunny day to take a photo I had waited for kept me from posting the FO.

The Shawl is really warm on my shoulders and I think it will be a great at-home-comfort-shawl. I really am happy and proud to have mastered those nupps that nearly drove me crazy. And I particularly like the way the cast-off turned out and, of course, that lovely color of the yarn. It just fits the flowery shawl pattern sooo well

Not all of the “Bad Nupps” blocked out, unfortunately, but at some point I did realize that, probably, other then me nobody will ever notice.

Talking of nupps:  Remember how I thought I’d never go through this ball of yarn when casting on? I still thought so when starting those nupps … well … two rows later I didn’t. And after having finished the shawl the ball of yarn happened to look like that:

I really was sweating when knitting those final rows. I wonder how much yards are left on this about walnut-sized ball? Perhaps I rather don’t know … I think I may have to make a sacrifice for the goddess of knitting (whoever that might be) for guiding me so well as for how many repeats of the flowers to knit!